The Mom Files: 18 Months

February 20, 2016

Hello! Harrison recently turned 18 months and it has been one heck of a ride this month. This will also be my last monthly update for Harrison – the monthly changes are smaller now that I find myself wondering what to write about! You don’t want to hear me say the same thing every month.

He started daycare in early January and four days later was OBVIOUSLY SICK BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY. I just started a new job and needed to be out of town very soon after and my student/teacher husband was starting a new semester. So that was a good time to navigate a sick child, yikes. It was another one of those times when we wished we had family near. After four days of him being sick with a fever, my husband took him to the doctor and it turns out he had pneumonia. He was sick for ten days and then back at daycare and now is just constantly running snot from his nose like everyone else at daycare. Not such a good time all around, it’s been a hard month for us.

He’s having fun at daycare, as far as I can tell from the report I get from his teachers. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that he’s a fun little extrovert so he likes to be around people. He doesn’t like when Mom and Dad leave at first, but we walk down the hall and out the door and then I always peer in the window and he’s playing or sitting happily as though nothing had happened. I’m glad that window is there! A couple amazingly cute things have happened at daycare and it makes me so happy as a mom to see him interacting certain ways with kids. There are kids who really like him! Like, he probably has more friends than I do at this point! He was upset the other day as I put his clean diapers in their cubby and so he was crying and one little girl who was over from the preschool classroom went up to him and rubbed his back and patted him on the shoulder. I MEAN SERIOUSLY. He stopped crying, I’m not sure if he was comforted by her or if he was just confused and distracted but my heart was in smithereens on the floor. One of Harrison’s friends at daycare was going home for the day and they were saying bye to the little boy and Harrison waved and then blew a kiss to him. He does that all the time but only to adults. I’ve never seen him do that to a child before. And then he arrives the next day with his stuffed penguin (AS ALWAYS!) and one of the little boys his age pulled out a chair for Harrison to sit down. Like seriously, so cute. THEN HE PULLED A CHAIR OUT FOR PENGUIN. Like, Penguin is just basically another one of the gang. It really makes me feel better about the whole daycare thing to know that he has fun and is loved.

He’s still not particularly vocal. Wait, I take that back. He’s extremely vocal, but he’s not saying many words really. So far I’ve managed to get “all done,” “shoes,” “toes,” “dad,” and I think I heard “chair” today while he was pointing to a chair. It’s all very hard to tell, as I’m sure you know.

Also he likes to sit. Everywhere. At daycare they said that if they don’t take the little plastic lawn chair out of the shed for him to sit on, he just stares at the shed and cries. How sad! All he wants to do is sit!

I’ve been out of town overnight twice in the last month (the first time for three nights, cringe), which was the first time I haven’t slept just right next door to him. It was weird, and very hard. Having kids is hard. My heart ached for him while I was gone and then I get back and he’s loudly bashing his Wow Cup over and over and over and over on the table instead of eating and I want to stick my head far into a soft pillow. Le sigh.

And that, my friends, is all she wrote for the 2014/2015/2016 Mom Files. Maybe I’ll pick up some Behind the Bump and then Mom Files in 2043 when we decide we’re ready for another baby. Until then, catch me here on the blog with the Safety Series!

A transplant from western Canada, Sarah and her husband now live in Hamilton, Ontario. They are parents to a little guy, born August 2014, and have also acquired two plants to care for. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @ispeakcanadian.